4 Lessons Learned After Scaling a Multi-Million Dollar Business With Hundreds of Employees

All great business owners want to optimize and improve their business.

One of the best ways to do this is to observe and reverse engineer other successful entrepreneurs’ methods so that you can learn from what they are doing and implement it in your own business.

In this article, I will share 4 elements to scaling a multi-million dollar business with hundreds of employees by highlighting PatientPop and founders Luke Kervin and Travis Schneider

The longtime business partners have achieved success that any entrepreneur would be happy to emulate. The two first met at Schneider’s first venture, called Starbrand Media, where Kervin was an executive. It wasn’t long before the company was sold to POPSUGAR. The two then went on to found their first venture together, ShopNation, an e-commerce company where the two acted as co-CEOs, sharing in the day-to-day decisions and company leadership.

The company was quickly acquired by Meredith Brands the media giant that owns well-known publications like Sports Illustrated, Time Magazine, and Fortune Magazine, to name a few.

Fast forward to today, and Kervin and Schneider founded the first and only comprehensive, award-winning, all-in-one practice growth technology aimed at physicians to thrive in private practice. Using the same unique co-CEO strategy that brought them their previous success, the two have grown their company to over 375 employees, and it is on its way to generating $100 million in revenue since its inception in 2014.

As the founder of Leave Normal Behind, I am always highlighting individuals who are becoming the best version of themselves, giving back, and creating things that matter, so it was awesome to learn these lessons from Luke and Travis. 

Here’s a little insight into how the partnership works and how their latest venture came to be.

Kervin and Schneider’s History

There’s always that feeling that the buck should stop with a single CEO, and it can look difficult on paper to split CEO responsibilities between two different people that have an equal say and often varying leadership philosophies. However, Kervin and Schneider make it work. Schneider describes the relationship as having “very complementary skill sets, but we’re much different people with much different skill sets. So we’re able to make it work.”

How does this play out in practice? In Schneider’s words, Kervin is the “product visionary,” helping put together the product roadmap at the companies they run together. Schneider, on the other hand, is more of a sales expert. By dividing things between internal and external responsibilities, the two complement each other’s expertise. Combine that with the trust built up over several years, and you have the foundation for a strong business partnership.

The Birth of PatientPop

So, with this track record of success, what led Kervin and Schneider to create PatientPop as their next venture? Part of the motivation was personal. While there are countries that are performing well in the world of healthcare, there are still major gaps in tech when it comes to U.S.-based health providers. This is something that Kervin found out firsthand in 2013.

Kervin’s wife became pregnant at the time, and the couple’s OB-GYN missed a critical test result that could have led to serious health problems for her if it wasn’t caught by a primary physician some time later. Kervin realized that forwarding the cause of technology could potentially prevent what happened to him and his wife from happening to others while at the same time modernize private practices, making it easier for physicians to focus on their patients.

With Schneider on board, the two began reaching out to OB-GYNs in the Santa Monica region, where they were based, to gauge interest in the initial version of what would become PatientPop. This would be a more focused product, though, originally an app only meant for OB-GYNs. Ultimately, as Schneider explained in an interview that, while they had interest, none of the doctors they talked to would pay for such a product because it was a “nice-to-have,” not a “must-have.”

However, what they ended up discovering is the solution wasn’t as important as the problem. The problem doctors saw was that they needed help getting more patients through the door and help growing their practice.

This led to the formation of PatientPop, the only all-in-one practice growth technology for medical practices. From SEO management to front office automation, all of the tools are designed to help medical practices run more efficiently and effectively. With more and more doctors feeling the pressure to join hospital systems, a little bit of tech help in these areas could allow them to remain independent.

Ultimately, PatientPop’s massive success (going from 2 to 150 employees in 1.5 years and now employs over 375) is a case study on how putting the right team towards a targeted business need can mean startup gold.

Additionally, this would not have happened without the duo behind the startup and the specific skills and relationship they bring to the table.

Here are the 4 Lessons we can learn from Luke Kervin & Travis Schneider as they scale PatientPop to $100 million in total revenue to date:

1. Collaboration

Being collaborative is a key element in having success. You cannot do anything on your own. We all know the phrase, “If you want to go fast, go alone … if you want to go far, go together.” This means that we can all achieve more together than on our own. Luke and Travis show how being collaborative with business partners, employees, AND clients leads to co-creation and success. Remember, 100% of 0 is … 0. It’s way better to build something bigger with others and share the profits than be closed off to collaboration and own a whole lot of nothing.

2. Attract Complementary Skillsets

Working in your zone of genius is essential. The only way you can do this is if you surround yourself with others who complement the skills that you have. Your strengths need to complement their weakness and vice versa. Luke and Travis were able to utilize their complementary skills to build a lot of momentum and culture in their business. If you can find people to work with who complement your strengths then you will be better equipped to scale a multi-million dollar business.

3. Use the Real World to Find Inspiration

Great entrepreneurs, artists, scientists, and inventors have utilized real world inspiration in order to achieve their incredible breakthroughs. For example, Leonardo Di Vinci would frequently go out in nature and sketch all that was around him in his pursuit for a deeper understanding of life. Additionally, Albert Einstein used a clock in London to spark his initial idea and questions around the theory of special relativity. You’ll find that the answers to all the questions we are asking ourselves are usually right in front of our eyes – we just have to be ready and open to receiving them. If we are not open and looking for opportunities, then we will miss them.

4. Adapt to a Need

Do not be so rigid. Adapt to a need. Do not be so emotionally attached to any decision you make – it does not feel good. Instead, be decisive with your decisions and make the best decisions you can based on all the context you have at that given time, yet acknowledge and be aware of your ability to immediately change your decision and plan based on the introduction of new information. For PatientPop, Luke and Travis were able to adapt to the need of their client and change their entire business model. There are other entrepreneurs who are so emotionally tied to their decisions because of their ego that they would have missed this opportunity by not adapting and would continue running into a brick wall just because of their inability to adapt based on their ego.

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The success of Luke Kervin and Travis Schneider is a great example of what can happen when you work with a co-founder who has a complementary skill set. Additionally, when you are able to be observant of the world around you and decisively adapt, you put yourself in a great position to succeed and maximize opportunities.

These 4 lessons should make you reflect on your current business and see where there is room for improvement. Share this article with a friend so they can learn these lessons and comment your feedback on social media.

And if you, or anyone you know, is leaving normal behind, then send me an email and we can talk: rob@leavenormalbehind.com.